Virginia Beach needs to engage residents on light rail

Virginia Beach has a chance to do it right this time. Its deal to buy the 10.6-mile rail line between Norfolk and the resort area allows the city to begin planning the transportation and redevelopment policies necessary for it to prosper for the next few decades.

Light rail will take years to build, and it will be expensive. But as Mayor Will Sessoms said, it is "the backbone of our future business growth."

Sessoms' announcement Thursday capped a decade of sometimes acrimonious discussions between Virginia Beach and Norfolk Southern Corp. over the 66-foot-wide right of way, which runs from Newtown Road, past Town Center and Hilltop to Birdneck Road.

The city assessed the property at $7.3 million; the rail company said it was worth $40 million or more. Negotiations stalled until Sessoms called rail company executives shortly after his election in November and pushed for a deal.

The city will pay $10 million - more than it wanted but likely less than the cost of condemnation. The state's share is $20 million. Hampton Roads Transit agreed to pay $5 million, and $5 million will come from easement payments.

Had the sale not been sealed, the property might have been tied up in court for years. Or Norfolk Southern might have sold pieces of the land to private companies or individuals, making it difficult for the city to control this critical east-west corridor.

Sessoms deserves much credit for this important first step, one that Norfolk didn't accomplish until 2005, after it had decided to build the line and seek permits. Now the mayor and Beach City Council must make up for the Beach's failure to lead in the last citywide light rail discussion, in 1999.

Even before the permitting process begins and the environmental impact study is complete, they must engage residents in discussions about this new transportation option. How might a bus feeder system be structured to ensure that people use it? Where should parking lots be built to accommodate the most riders? How can Virginia Beach learn from Norfolk's mistakes?

Rather than shut down skeptics, city leaders must start laying out the case for, as Sessoms put it, "weaning ourselves off the stranglehold of automobiles."

Ten years ago, when Virginia Beach voters defeated light rail by a 55-45 percent margin, naysayers were the only ones campaigning. Council members sat mum on the sidelines, ensuring a win for the doubting and suspicious.

If council members sit this one out, as Councilman Harry Diezel seemed to suggest Thursday - "I'm taking a wait-and-see approach" - the city and the region will be stuck with a transportation system designed for the 1960s, when land was plentiful and fuel cheap. That model already is outdated and inefficient, as well as ill-equipped to serve the needs of Hampton Roads for the next 40 years.

Sessoms has been criticized for backtracking on his campaign statement to take the light rail issue to the voters again. But state Sen. Ken Stolle, who helped get the state money for the right of way, was correct that it's the council's responsibility to decide. Rather than abdicate that duty, city leaders need to develop a public participation process while the studies are under way and funding sources are being investigated.

Bring in experts from cities that built light rail lines to discuss how they're working and what they wish they'd done differently. Devise a plan similar to the multiyear process that led to the convention center.

It took Norfolk 13 years to get its project under way, starting with a 1995 study.

Virginia Beach's work must begin now.